Netanyahu announces he may annex parts of West Bank 'in coordination' with U.S

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Tuesday that he plans to annex the Jordan Valley and other parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank if he is re-elected next week.

"This is a historic opportunity to apply sovereignty to communities in Judea and Samaria," the prime minister said. He also said he intends to make the move "in coordination with the United States," adding that the U.S. would present its long-rumored Israel-Palestine peace plan shortly after Israel's elections.

Netanyahu made a similar pledge before Israel's elections in April and another in August — analysts view the rhetoric as a means for cementing votes from the religious Zionist voting bloc. But Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in response that "the land of Palestine is not part of Netanyahu's election campaign," calling his Israeli counterpart the "main destroyer of the peace process."

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More than 3 million Palestinians and 400,000 Israelis live in the West Bank. Israel's military captured the territory during the Six-Day War in 1967, but never formally annexed it. Read more at The Guardian and NBC News.